Car-fender.



J. A. DEVITT.

GAR FENDER.

APPLIUATION FILED JUNE4, 1912.

Patented Mar. 11,1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT orrrca JOSEPH A. DEVITT, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF T0 WILLIAM ORR KIRKER, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

GAR-FENDER.

Application filed June 4, 1912.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, Josnrrr A. Dnvrrr, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Car-Fender, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists of a novel construction of car fender which is adapted to be applied to a street railway or other car either in front of the platform of the car or beneath the platform thereof.

It further consists of improvements upon the carfender for which Letters Patent, No. 1,012,336, were granted to me on December 19, 1911, whereby a fender embodying features therein disclosed can be adapted to be applied in front of the platform of the car or beneath the platform.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention, I have shown in the accompanying drawings one form thereof which is at present preferred by me, since the same has been found in practice to give satisfactory and reliable results, although it is to be understood that the various instrumentalities of which my invention consists can be variously arranged and organized and that my invention is not limited to the precise arrangement and organization of these instrumentalities as herein shown and described.

In said annexed drawings :-Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a novel construction of fender embodying my invention applied beneath the platform of a car. Fig. 2 represents a transverse section on line aa-m in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a plan view of the fender, showing the supporting brackets in horizontal section on the line yy in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 represents a detail view of a forward corner of the fender and the trip frame, with parts broken away and removed. Fig. 5 represents a section on line 2-2, Fig. 4, showing also a front elevation of a portion of the fender showing the guard in position.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in the figures.

Referring to the drawings :1 designates the platform of a street railway car. Brackets, 2, are secured to the under side of said platform and have depending bearings, 8, at their rear ends and depending arms, 4, at their forward ends and bearings, 5, at

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 11, 1913. Serial No. 701,549.

their lower ends. A rock-shaft, 6, is journaled in the rear bearings, and two retaining arms, 7, are adjustably secured upon said rock-shaft, and are formed with downwardly facing shoulders or abutments, 8, upon their forward sides. A rock-shaft, 9, is journaled in the forward bearings of the brackets, and has a pair of tubular side bars, 10, secured to it, which side bars extend rearward to form arms, 11. The rear extremities of the arms or members 11 are normally held in contact with the shoulders or abutment-s 8, as will be understood from Fig. 1, by means of springs, 12, secured at 14: to the arms 7, and to lugs, 13, projecting from sleeves, 50, upon the rock-shaft 9, whereby the scoop of the fender is normally held in the position shown in full lines in Fig. 1.

15 designates two rods or bars which join the forward extremities of the arms or members 10, as will be understood from Fig. 3, whereby a very rigid frame is produced, which is preferably rectangular, as will be understood fro-m said figure, and is further stiffened and strengthened by means of the central rod or member 16. In practice, I preferably desire to construct the members 10, 15 and 16 from tubes or piping and assemble the same by means of ordinary T-fittings, which can be cheaply procured in the open market. Upon each of the forward members 15, I movably mount the sleeves 17 which have secured thereto the guards 18, the said sleeves having the lugs 19 thereon, to which one end of the spring 20 is attached, the other end of said spring being'atta'chedtoa suitable fixed point as 21.

22 designates a stop or abutment which is rigidly secured to the fitting 23, whereby the guard 18 is always normally held in a substantially upright position, as will be understood from Fig. 1.

24 designates a forward cross bar carrying shoes 25, said forward cross bar being connected with the rearwardly extending rods 26 which extend through the hollow tubular members 10 and have their rear extremities 27 in contact with the swinging arm 7, as will be understood from Fig. 1, whereby it will be apparent that any rearward movement which is imparted to the forward cross bar 245- will cause the ends 27 of the side rods 26 to engage the depending member 7 and push the same backwardly in the direction of the arrow a, whereby the parts will drop from the position seen in full lines in-Fig. 1, to the position seen in dotted lines therein.

28 designates a pin, which is suitably secured to a fixed point, as will be understood from Fig. 4, and is adapted to contact with either the shoulder 29 or the shoulder 30, said pin acting as a stop or abutment, and thus tending to limit the movement of the forward cross bar or tripping bar 24, as is evident.

31 designates a pair of ratchets which are secured upon the rock shaft 9 and are adapt.- ed to be engaged by the forward extremity of the pawl 32 which is pivotally supported at the point 33 and is provided at its rear portion with the slot 34, which latter is engaged by the ends of the rod 35, which is connected by the arm 36 to the foot operated member 87, the latter having a head 38 on its upper portion, below which is located. a spring or tension device 39, the latter being held in position between the platform 1 and the head 88. The lower extremity 40 of the foot operated device is adapted to contact, when the same is depressed, with the bar 41, which extends between the arms 11, as will be understood from. Fig. 3, whereby when the foot actuated member 37 is depressed, its lower end will contact with said bar 41 and raise the parts from the position seen in dotted lines in Fig. 1 to the position seen in full lines therein.

42 designates a hearing or bracket supported from the forward portion of the carplatform and a swinging gate 43 is pivotally mounted in said bracket, to the lower portion of which gate is attached one end of the connection 44, which latter passes around the pulley 45 and thence over the pulley 46, the opposite extremity of said connection 44 being secured to an eye, 47, upon an arm, 49,

secured to and depending from rock-shaft- 6.

The operation is as follows :Assuming the trolley or other car to be moved in a forward direction, it will be apparent that if the swinging gate or member 43 contacts with a person or object, the same will be turned in the direction of the arrow 6, whereupon a pull will be imparted to the connection 44, whereby the swinging arm 49 and arms 7 will move in the direction of the arrow 6!- and the shoulders 8 will be moved backwardly out of contact with the rear ends of the arms 11, and the fender, being unsupported, will drop from the position seen in full lines in Fig. 1 to that shown in dotted lines and the objectstruck will be caught and received upon the arms 10 and their adjuncts without injury. it being apparent that the guards 18 will move rearwardly during their contact with the object hit and will thereafter automatically assume the position seen in Fig 1 so as to prevent the object or person struck from rolling off the fender on to the car track. In case the swinging gate should not be operative or the object should be too small to actuate the same, it will be apparent that the contact of the object or person with the forward cross bar 24 will cause the latter to move to the rear, whereupon the extremities 27 of the side members 26 will contact with the swinging lever 7 and move the shoulders 8 rearwardly from the position seen, where upon the fender will be permitted to drop from the position seen in full lines in Fig. 1

to the position seen in dotted lines. As the fender descends into the position seen in dotted lines in Fig. 1, the contact of the pawl or pawls 39. with their contiguous ratchet teeth will temporarily hold the fender in its dropped position.

When it is desired to reset the fender, it is only necessary for the motorman to clepress the plunger 37 by pressing upon the head 38 with his foot, whereupon the contact of the lower portion of the plunger 40- with the arm 41 will raise the arms 10 and their adjuncts from the position seen in dotted lines to the position seen in full lines in Fig. 1, whereupon it will be apparent that the tension of the springs 12 will pull the locking arm 7 into the position seen in said Fig. 1, and the fender will be reset and retained in elevated position. The depression of the foot operated member 37 will cause the ends of the rod 35 to engage the elongated slot 34 and thus effect the proper actuation of the pawl or pawls 32.

It will thus be seen from the foregoing that I have provided a novel construction of fender, which will be automatically thrown into operation either by the contact of the gate 43 or the forward cross bar 24 with the object or person which may be hit, so that the device will be positively operative under all conditions. Since the sleeves 17 are freely mounted upon the forward members 15, it will be apparent that the guards 18 will automatically assume the upright position seen in Fig. 1 by reason of the tension of the springs 20, said guards turning rearwardly, however, in case the object or person hit contacts with them. By the employment of the resetting device composed of the plunger and its adjuncts 37, the device can be readily reset by the motorman or attendant without necessitating his leaving the car platform.

While I have shown the body of the fender as being composed of rods, tubing or piping joined together by Ts or coubody as being composed of slats 48, it will be apparent that wire netting or screens or other material may be employed, if desired.

By the employment of the pin 28 in conjunction with the shoulders 29 and 30, it will be apparent that the forward as well as the rearward movement of the" forward cross bar 24 will be limited according to re quirements.

It will now be apparent that I have devised a novel and useful construction of a car fender which embodies the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the statement of the invention and in the above description, and while I have, in the present instance, shown and described a preferred embodiment thereof which has been found in practice to give satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that the same is susceptible of modification in various particulars without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention or sacrificing any of its advantages.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A car-fender comprising a scoop-frame pivotally supported near its rear end and having a rearwardly extending arm, a pivoted retaining arm formed with a shoulder adapted to engage the end of said first recited arm, a rod slidable in said scoop-frame to have its rear end bearing against said retaining arm and provided with a cross-bar at its forward end and a foot-operated member connected to said rearwardly-extending arm to depress the same when such member is depressed, whereby the scoop may be raised after it has been dropped.

2. A car-fender comprising a scoop-frame pivotally supported near its rear end and having side-bars forming arms extending rearward beyond their pivot-points and connected by a cross-bar, pivoted retaining arms formed with shoulders adapted to engage the ends of said rearwardly extending arms, resilient means for drawing said retaining arms forward, means mounted in advance of said scoop-frame to be engaged by an object upon the roadway and connected to said retaining arms to move them rearward when so engaged, and a treadle engaging the cross-bar connecting the rearwardly-extending arms of the scoop-frame and having a spring for raising it.

3. A car-fender comprising a scoop-frame pivotally supported near its rear end and having a rearwardly extending arm, a ratchet-segment upon said scoop-frame, a pivoted retaining arm formed with a shoulder adapted to engage the end of said first recited arm, means for disengaging said retaining arm, a pawl engaging said ratchetsegment, and a foot-operated member connected to said rearwardly-extending arm and to the pawl to depress the former and disengage the latter when such member is depressed after the scoop-frame has been dropped.

JOSEPH A. DEVITT.

Witnesses:

WM. 0. KIRKER, H. S. FAIRBANKS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

